The giant acting talent of Brian Cox (Churchill) tackles the role of a cantankerous old Scotsman, Rory, who is forced from his peaty shores across the pond to seek medical treatment in San Francisco.
A preference for rough-hewn edges rather than America's modern clean lines, Rory also uses the trip to begrudgingly reconnect with his son Ian, after a 15-year absence. Ian is a chemist-come-chef whose Heston Blumenthal-styled, ultra-modern gastronomic creations wow patrons with their smokey bluster and gelatinous wonder — a far cry from Rory's preference for black pudding and two veg. Unsurprisingly, the two don't see eye to eye.
The film riffs on the rural-foreigner-visits-big-city-America schtick—a tired routine that threatens to turn this film into Crocodile Dundee for old Scottish folk. Thankfully it doesn't go quite that far, and broader themes that compare the quaint with the modern fall away in favour of a standard father-son tale.
Of course, a crowd-pleaser of this nature wouldn't be complete without some light romance with the much younger looking (sigh) Rosanna Arquette. Suffice to say that Rory's Way doesn't break much fresh ground and appears to be content with running a by-the-numbers routine that snuggles up to a very risk-free screenplay and a comfy score drumming to the bland beat of "mediocre".
It's disappointingly formulaic and something I don't normally go for. Yet, it is also undeniably a likeable crowd-pleaser providing just enough silky-smooth pleasantries to gently usher your brain towards its predictable ending.
